On the 22nd of October, I landed in India and on the very same day I got whisked into the endless festivities that take place in this time of year. There is a period on the Hindu calendar called Navratri celebrated in Ashwin Maas (a hindu month). It is a nine day festival that is celebrated to honour the goddess Durga and her victory over evil. And everyday in the evening it is a tradition to gather with your local community and collectively take part in a traditional dance called Dandiya or Garba. 

 

The 22nd was the eighth day of the Navratri festival which is known as Ashtmi, on this day there is a special pooja (prayer) performed which is called Kanjak or Kanyapujan. In this pooja, young girls of ages 12 years and under from the local area go to various households to be worshipped as they are seen as human forms of goddesses. 

 

That evening in the local community there was an organised Dandiya event .There were multiple food stalls with a variety of traditional and street foods, the whole area was lit up and everyone was dressed in their brightest clothes, specifically the traditional Gujarati attire called ‘Chaniya Choli’ which is most often complimented by oxidised silver jewellery.  People of all ages had prepared dance performances, speeches and poems to share the festive spirit in the community and at the end everyone danced round in circles around the deity of the goddess Durga, as a form of worship. 

 

The event was anchored by my own cousin Sana Arora and she described the evening as. “A confluence of cultures, colours and creativity”, which is the truest way to put it into words. This being the first time I had experienced the festival in India I was truly blown away by the scale and magnificence of the event.